Sensitive, simple and rapid colorimetric detection of Malachite green in water, salmon and canned tuna samples based on gold nanoparticles.

BACKGROUND: Malachite green is used in aquaculture and fisheries as fungicides and antiseptic and it is also used in industry as a dye. However, Malachite green is carcinogenic and highly toxic for human and animal. In this study, a spectrophotometric method was developed to detect Malachite green. The method was based on the surface plasmon resonance property of gold nanoparticles and interaction between malachite green and gold nanoparticles.

RESULTS: Malachite green-gold nanoparticles were rapidly aggregated in the acidic medium; as a result, a color change from red to blue was observed, which was easily detectable by the naked eye. The absorption ratio (A623/520) of the AuNPs in optimized system exhibited a linear correlation with Malachite green concentration. The method detection limit and linear range were 3 ng mL-1 and 50-350 ng mL-1 , respectively. The method was applied successfully to detect Malachite green in different samples.

CONCLUSION: The method was simple and rapid to detect Malachite green. The most important advantages of the method are the possibility of Malachite green determination with very good accuracy and sensitivity using a simple UV-vis spectrometer without any expensive or sophisticated instrumentation and also the versatility of real sample. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.